Saturday, May 19, 2012

Instant White Chocolate Mousse

While living in Mammoth, I came across this recipe by Nigella Lawson for Instant Chocolate Mousse. It's still my go-to recipe for a mousse, but I thought I would try a spin on it and use white chocolate.
  A traditional mousse requires separating eggs, partially cooking the yolks with some melted chocolate, whipping the whites and then folding them both together (sometimes with whipped cream also).  I'm not too keen on the idea of eating raw eggs, so when I saw this recipe that has no eggs I thought I would give it a try.
   No, it's not a traditional mousse. But it turned out well and it was a very good copy-cat.
I was thinking of what I could make for my mom (because I'm just that kind of daughter), and I thought about making a white chocolate mousse. She doesn't like regular chocolate, but she loves the white stuff.  I tried the original recipe by Nigella Lawson, but found that it was too sweet with the white chocolate. I added more whipped cream and that helped. While the texture of the instant white chocolate mousse isn't as close as the kind made with semi-sweet chocolate, (which I think is almost identical to a light and fluffy, yet set traditional mousse), it is good.
   It's a fun dessert that only takes a couple minutes to whip together, and my mom seemed to like it and that's all that matters, really. :)

Here's what I did:

Put butter and a little water into a pot on the stove.

Turn on the heat to low and add 3 cups of marshmallows. (The gelatin in the marshmallows sets the mouse, without you having to use eggs. It doesn't taste like marshmallows in the end. Just like chocolate.)

Now, the recipe says to add the chocolate in with the marshmallows - at the same time. But Something inside me was against that. I should have listened and melted the marshmallows completely first, and then added the chocolate. Do what I say and not what I did.  Wait to add the chocolate until all the marshmallows are melted. If you do add them all together, you will need to keep the heat on low and continuously stir it (so the chocolate doesn't burn) until everything is melted.

It seemed like it took forever for me to get the marshmallows to melt after the chocolate was in. When it finally did, it looked like this. I set this aside to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, my wonderful hubby whipped up some whipped cream and vanilla (NO SUGAR!) The marshmallows and chocolate have enough sweetness for the whole dish.

Then I just folded the two together,

and divided the mousse into individual serving dishes. (It serves 8 depending on the size of your cups.) They go into the fridge and chill until you  are ready to serve.
You can see my tart shell in the background, that I just baked for my Vanilla Custard Tart with Fresh Raspberries. "But that's another show" as Alton Brown would say.
I topped mine with a little dollop of whipped cream and a black berry (I like the tart contrast of the berry to the sweet mousse.)
Here's the recipe:
adapted from Nigella Lawson's Instant Chocolate Mousse

Instant White Chocolate Mousse

3 cups mini marshmallows
1/2 stick butter, softened
9 ounces best quality white chocolate chopped into small pieces
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the marshmallows, butter, and water in a heavy-based saucepan.

Cook over medium low heat, stirring occasionally until the marshmallows are melted. Add the chocolate, and turn off the heat. Stir until the chocolate it melted and set aside.

Meanwhile whip the cream with the vanilla until stiff peaks form.  Then fold into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth, cohesive mixture.

Pour or scrape into 6 or 8 glasses or small dishes and chill until you want to eat. This is very rich so a little is all you need.

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